


The Many Talents of Phil Connors

by RadiantMoth



Category: Groundhog Day - Minchin/Rubin
Genre: Fluff, I'm so sorry, requests open, this is basically all fluff bc i'm about to demolish phil in a different series
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-20
Updated: 2018-11-22
Packaged: 2019-08-26 14:37:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16683481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RadiantMoth/pseuds/RadiantMoth
Summary: A drabble series about the niche skills and knowledge Phil obtained while in the loop.





	1. Figure Skating

“You cannot fucking figure skate.”

“I guarantee you that I can,” Phil said, not even bothering to look up from his newspaper.

Rita rolled her eyes. “Just because your job relates to weather doesn't make you a master of the elements. You're _forty_ , for God’s sake.”

“Well, Rita, I have a lot of skills that you wouldn't expect me to have.”

Rita thought back to that Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney. She _had_ been pretty surprised that Phil could play piano, but this wasn't playing playing the piano. She'd know if Phil Connors could figure skate. 

“Show me.”

Phil finally looked up at her, eyebrows raised. “I'm sorry?”

“Show me that you can do it.” Rita said. “There's bound to be at least one ice rink still open, we're not out of winter yet.”

He seemed to contemplate this for a long while, arithmetic almost visibly circling just head. Just when Rita thought he was going to cave and admit he couldn't do it, Phil spoke again.

“Alright. You're paying though.”

“If you can actually do this, I'll buy you fucking _dinner_.”

* * *

It took an embarrassing amount of time for Rita to get her skates on. Phil took almost as long, but it kinda felt like he was mostly doing it to make her feel better. Whatever, she'd feel much better when she'd see him eat shit on the ice. Just because Rita was a nice person, she'd still take him out to coffee afterwards.

He'd have to pay, though.

Phil stepped out onto the ice first, bowing slightly and holding his hand out to her like some shitty knight. “What is this?”

“Chivalry?”

“Keep your dumb chivalry, I want to see these ice tricks.”

Phil smiled. “Suit yourself.” He skated away, arms crossed behind his back. Rita would call it smug if she didn't know any better.

To be completely fair, Phil easily lapped her several times around the rink. There weren't many other people there due to the skating season coming to an end soon. All the more larger stage to see Phil crash and burn on.

“Stop messing around,” Rita said as he came up from behind her. He started skating backwards to face her. “If you don't do any tricks, you're not getting the dinner.”

“Fine, fine, just give me a second.”

Rita gripped into the side of the rink for stability as Phil glided to the center. For a long moment he just stood there, like he was sizing up the ice in front of him. And then he was moving, arms held out steadily. 

In almost no time he was spinning, one foot held up as he went through a series of turns. And it was… impressive. It definitely wasn’t any professional or Olympic level skating, but it was certainly more than she thought he could do.

Then Phil actually _jumped_ , adding a twirl in the air before he landed easily. He started skating towards Rita, adding in another right before he slid to the wall next to her. He planted his elbow on the ridge and rested his chin on his hand, grinning. “So I think you owe me dinner.”

Rita shook herself out of her shell shocked state. “When did you learn to _do_ that?”

“Oh, uh, y’know, I got really bored one winter and didn’t know what else to do. I... _nearly_ broke my neck a few times, though, since I didn’t really have any proper teachers.”

“Living on the edge, huh Connors?”

His grin softened just a bit. “You know it, Hanson.” Phil held out his hand again. “Want to go get that dinner.”

“...Yea. Let’s do it.”

Rita took his hand this time.


	2. Rubik's Cube

Waiting was _boring_. Half the crew was stuck in the station due to a freak storm. It was kind of ironic, that a weather reporting team was trapped by a storm they didn’t even see coming. An emergency broadcast was sent out, but that didn’t prevent them from being any less stuck. And Rita was bored. There was only so many match-three game based apps one could take before getting sick of it. Plus, something was making a _very_ annoying clicking sound. 

She ground, pressing the heels of her palms into her eyes. It was more than likely going to die down in an hour or two, based on how long the storm had already been raging. She could hold it out as long as that god damn clicking stopped soon.

Rita shuffled through the stuff on her desk, hoping, _praying_ to find a book she’d perhaps left there one day. No such luck. She did however happen to find a bracelet she had set down and forgotten about, so that was nice. Rita managed to entertain herself for another 10 minutes by looking through the pictures on her phone and reminiscing. Those ten minutes went by pretty quick, and then she was left alone with that sound again.

She stood up. Okay, she at least had to know where it was coming from before she left. Following the noise, she wove through the building until she came across Phil Connors gently spinning in a swivel chair, staring intently at a Rubik’s Cube in his hands.

“Phil-” Rita rubbed her temples as he looked up at her. “What are you doing?”

“Being not bored?”

“Can you be not bored some other way? I can hear it down the hall and it’s kind of annoying.”

“Oh. Yea, sure, just give me a second.” He looked back down at the cube, tilted it around and within the next five seconds it was solved and sitting on the desk. 

Rita nearly did a double take. “Whoa, wait a second, how did you do that?”

Phil shrugged, giving Rita a really weird look. “Do what?”

“Solve that so fast. That must be like, a new world record or something.”

“It’s not,” Phil laughed. “The world record is a second or two longer than mine, and trust me, that’s a damn long time on that thing.”

So Rita wasn’t up to date on the time of the world record for fastest solving of a Rubik’s Cube. Sue her. She stepped closer to Phil. “You _have_ to teach me.”

“I mean, I don’t _have_ to do anything.”

“You do if the next time I see you I’ll pie you in the face.”

“Technically I- _you’ll what_?”

“You heard me.” Rita spread her hands in mock sympathy. “I don’t make the rules, Phillip, I just enforce them.”

“Yea, it’s just Phil, tha-”

“Teach me.”

Phil sighed. “I think you’re a five year old in a woman’s body.” He picked up the cube and scrambled it up. “So the squares in the middle are immovable, right? That’s what you base everything around.”

Rita had given up on solving a Rubik’s Cube about twenty or so years ago, but with someone to actually explain it, it all made more sense. In fact, by the time someone had stopped by to say the storm had subsided enough for everyone to go home, Rita had it halfway solved, which was further than she’d ever gotten before.

“Hey, uh…” Rita spoke up as Phil started packing up his things. “Can I take this home and try to solve it? I’ll get it back to you tomorrow.”

“No problem,” Phil said. “It’s not like I need the practice or anything. Take your time.”

He gave her a short hug and then he was gone. And if Rita had decided that one day she was going to beat Phil’s time on that damn cube… That was her business.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am. A great writer, I promise. This took me like 2-3 days for some reason and I don't know why. Anyways, still accepting requests n stuff!
> 
> my writing tumblr is @lilac-lying, maybe go ask some questions or something.
> 
> Comments are very very appreciated.

**Author's Note:**

> So it TURNS OUT. I cannot write dancing/figure skating. But i'm posting this anyways bc fuck you. I accept requests y'all might have related to this series so don't be shy, send em. I'll try to update as regularly as I can.
> 
> Comments give me life, kudos sustain my children (that don't exist yet).


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